Stargate: Dawn Under Heaven
by Sixth Ranger BetaHalo
Summary: There are those who seek to change fate... but how can you, when fate itself changes in answer? Look beyond the stars, but know that not everything out there is meant to be discovered. We might succeed in discovering their message, unlike Destiny before us.
1. Tribulations

**Prologue: Tribulations of Men**

…

These days were his worst days ever, of all time, he decided.

He'd been standing guard over one of the crossover tubes before the alarms went off.

He'd been there when those things began slamming on the quarantine seals.

He'd not been there when the power failed and they began pouring in the Public Sector.

He' also just been talking to Gabe before his wife, Lexine, called him, and had left the married couple (soon to be parents), he'd met Lexine, and for reasons beyond him, he'd talking to care for her as his own little sister.

Lexine would often stare at nothing, cringing at sound only she could hear, but he never told Gabe, if his wife wasn't comfortable with him knowing, who he to probably cause their first marital arguments was.

And now, standing guarding with a pulse rifle as some civilians got into emergency shuttles, he chose to reflect on his life.

He remembered other times. Happier times, before all this madness came.

And squashed them as soon as they came, as they wouldn't serve any purpose but to get him killed.

One didn't spent 20 years in the military and not been changed at all.

But still… it saddened him as he saw another shuttle crashing back unto the Sprawl due the thrice damned anti-ship turrets that fool Tiedemann had activated.

Or maybe one of his foot-licking marker-heads, who knew.

His onyx eyes briefly scanned the crow, and located another one with a sick-looking gash on her shoulder, barely covering it with her hand, it went unnoticed to those around her that the alien-necrosis-thing had begun taking over.

_There is no way that thing isn't alien._ He'd thought of telling his superior, but he went against the idea, they would never listen to him.

He'd never known.

* * *

It'd been roughly a few hours, yet it felt like days.

Now here he was, back in the Government Sector, the fool Tiedemann had issued that they scrubbed the hospital, but he knew better than to try to kill someone on the middle of this situation.

He knew he was right when he'd found that girl- no woman bleeding out in there.

She'd dragged herself out of somewhere; her RIG looked like one of those fancy prototypes with automatic Somatic Gel dispensers from built-in containers… Although those were prone to failing if shaken enough, just like her case. Problem was that the indicators failed too and stayed full despite how life threatening injures were.

He'd used some spare MedPacks on her before looking around… waiting for something.

He'd found one of the refurbished plasma cutters that CEC had deemed that could be hold onto by their owners after some upgrading. He'd given it to his female companion, who still limped and most likely had a broken rib or two despite the Level 4 Prototype Engineering RIG she wore. Her helmet was lost thought; she'd said it'd been too heavy for her to carry with all her injuries.

Frankly, he didn't care; he would find something to make up for it. He just didn't want to be alone in all this mess.

* * *

"So, whoever you are… thanks for the save back there… I thought… there was no one left…" she'd said, her hazel eyes sincere despite being cautious.

"Reycall" he'd answered, not turning back, looking at a blocked door.

"Yeah?"

"My name is Edward Reycall"

"Oh, mine is Norton, Karrie Norton"

* * *

He'd gotten an idea from seeing the Plasma Cutter, and asked Karrie if it was feasible.

"It might be possible that the Sprawl's CEC building has some shuttles left, but there is also the possibility of them being already taken by those in there…"

Reycall had hoped she was wrong, but it was better to have a clear objective than none at all.

* * *

"Holy Hannah…"

"You got that right…"

Here the pair was, looking at the jewel of planetary mining; the thought destroyed, yet still here, the motherfrakking USG ISHIMURA.

They looked at each other. They smiled at each other.

They had their ticket out of this mess.

* * *

"Karrie! Someone's just activated the gravity centrifuge!" Reycall shouted over his shoulders, quickly loading another magazine into his pulse rifle and aiming at the Necromorphs' joints.

"Let 'em help us! Cover me while I lock on the Singularity Core!" She simply used a few tools she had on her, not the best, but she wasn't picked for the Unitologist mission for her pretty face alone.

"Got it!" he took another rifle nearby and used a crate as a makeshift tripod, firing one while he reloaded the other, a trick from his days during the Resource Wars. "How much longer?"

"Just a few… DONE! Let's head for the bridge!" she shouted as she pulled out her Plasma Cutter and helped Reycall.

Reycall threw her a Javelin gun when she ran out or batteries, while he dropped one of the rifles and reloaded the other.

Running as fast as they could in their RIGs, they made it to the tram station on the medical deck, just as an alert of gravity tethers being used (along with a quite noticeable shudder from the ship). They however, didn't make it to reach whoever it was that used the ship's systems, but hey, that someone had just left them a space-ready ship filled with stuff (and Necromorphs) that could get them away from the station.

Reaching the captains nest, the duo switched the controls over using the Executive override so they could pilot the Ishimura without needing to use the bigger (and most vulnerable) bridge. This way they were safe and also could pilot quite well for such overly simplistic controls.

However, there were gravity tethers keeping the ship docked, so as soon as they could, they disengaged the tethers and reoriented them, then reversing their effect. The ship gave a shudder as they used the gravity tethers to push the Ishimura away from the dock, but it held, the CEC dock… not so much.

"Karrie, let's shock back to earth and…" Reycall trailed off, as he stared hard enough at the console in front of him.

"And what?" Karrie was about to engage the autopilot to reach a safe distance from the Sprawl when she noted her partners silence.

"Sorry, got a transmitter, a gunship, it seems, it came out from the TMMC (Titan Memorial Medical Center), so there's got to be someone there… let me try and contact it…"

"NO! What if they're Unitologists! You know what they did! Everything happening it's their fault!" she vehemently shouted, Tyler's betrayal still stung, after considering a friend and ally. She refused to hand over the only person she trusted (for now) to them.

"Karrie…" he reached over to her, it pained him to look at someone so strong growing so desperate. She'd told him about everything the church had made her do… a guilt she'd be carrying for a long time, it seemed. So he did the same thing he'd done with his sister all those years ago, he hugged her (despite how uncomfortable it was due their RIGs). Damara had always calmed down when he did that. "Don't worry… we'll be alright… if those inside the shuttle are simply innocents… well, we might just get a bit of forgiveness for our actions… and IF they are Unitologists, we'll toss them out the airlock, ok?"

"*Sigh* fine…"

Reycall went over the comms panel "This is USG Ishimura to EarthGov Gunship, Identify, yourself, over" Silence answered him, so he tried again "EarthGov Gunship, This is USG Ishimura, Identify yourself or you'll be fired upon, I repeat, this is USG Ishimura, Identify yourself or you'll be fired upon, over"

More silence answered him while Karrie opened a holoscreen with the closest ADS to the gunship, and overrode the controls so she could fire on it if proven hostile. Which was unnecessary after hearing from the gunship.

"_Hey, HEY! This Is Lexine Weller aboard EarthGov Gunship, hold your fire, please!"_

* * *

Lexine's day had gone to hell in a less than a day. It all began when she went to the Hospital for her fertility sessions, then Gabe had called her with new that _they_ were back.

Then one of Gabe's co-workers had tried to kill her, _then_ another group of freaks like Warren had tried to kidnap her…

Her and Gabe's child.

Then that bastard killed Gabe.

She'd spent the last minutes crying… wondering why the heck did those things always had to come and take away those she loved.

First Sam.

Nathan too.

Then Gabe.

But not her child.

She'd make sure of it.

The auto pilot was about to shock back to earth when the comms came online. And with it, an impossible signal came too.

"_This is USG Ishimura to EarthGov Gunship, Identify yourself, over"_

There was no way _it _was back.

As it played, she looked at the window to her right, and saw…

The beginning of her nightmare. Where she'd suffered so much… and lost someone she'd come to love before she fell for Gabe.

"_EarthGov Gunship, This is USG Ishimura, Identify yourself or you'll be fired upon, I repeat, this is USG Ishimura, Identify yourself or you'll be fired upon, over"_

Scrambling to the ship's controls, she raised the comms to answer. "Hey, HEY! This Is Lexine Weller aboard EarthGov Gunship, hold your fire, please!" she shouted, hoping that unlike last time, she was heard.

She stood nervously awaiting response. She was thoroughly confused when it wasn't the same male voice, but a distinctly feminine one.

"_Eh… why is it me…? Oh comms' online? Right, Miss Weller, this is Van-Sorry, this is Karrie Norton aboard the USG Ishimura… uh… you're not Unitologist… are you?"_

Shaking her head, she hurried to answer "What? No! I'm not one of them! I don't care about whatever they think about those things, but I'm not getting my child near those monsters if I can help it!"

"… _Ok, fine. Look, Miss Weller, my friend here wants to know if you worked with EarthGov on any of its projects… or something like that…"_

"My husband was in security, does that count?"

"_Yeah… is he there with you? My friend would like to speak with him…"_

"…He didn't make it…"

"_Oh… sorry… Look, we're going back to earth in a few minutes, you want to join us? I don't think that that shuttle has a shockdrive, does it?"_

Lexine checked, and no, it didn't have one. "No…"

"_Ok, why don't you get to the flight deck and dock there? We'll come and get you. Just don't come out your shuttle… I think there are still some of those things around… wait for us"_

She considered…

And initiated docking maneuvers.

* * *

"So what now, we come to the rescue?" exclaimed a nervous Karrie. Part of her was hopeful that at least she'd saved someone… and the other part was nervous that she'd have to go through the damn ship again to get her.

"Not yet, we have to…" Reycall interrupted himself. "Shit! Massive energy spike! The Shard's reactors must be about to explode!"

"Impossible! I fixed the cores myself!"

"Somehow they must be overheating… Tiedemann, that bastard! He must have set them to detonate!"

"Why would he… I mean, what reason would he have to?"

"Dunno, I asked myself the same about the orders for the hospital… is our guest here yet?"

"Her shuttle just finished docking"

"Alright…Lexine, don't come out your shuttle, we're shocking to earth now! The whole Sprawl is set to blow!" he didn't wait for Weller to respond, he locked down the magnetic clamps and shut off the airlocks, along with life support in all areas but the flight deck and the bridge.

_::_**All Hands, Shock out to Earth space in 3… 2… 1…**_::_

They knew no more after that.

…

_Unknown to them, the gates of fate had opened once again._

_All those aboard the Ishimura were keys, whether they knew it or not._

_One, the Wanderer, lost forever, never establishing true roots._

_The second, the Lamb, unknowingly sacrificed, blind to the truth before he eyes opened._

_The third, the Keeper, carrier of the Ambrosia, partner of the last of the first touched._

_These ones, using a 'touched' vessel, they began a voyage._

_A quest to stop the seven hells that await earth._

_They are hungry, we're their cattle._

_But no more._

_As the Killer, the Rider and the Warrior began their final fates…_

_The Wanderer, the Lamb and the Keeper began their own tales._

_These six would meet._

_As ancient tales spoke of._


	2. Heirs

_**Chapter 1:** **Heirs to oblivion.**_

Unknown to the occupants of the USG Ishimura, lots of things began to happen.

The Sprawl's reactor finally gave up, blowing up in quite a tremendous explosion…

But unfortunately, around it, the energy from the Site 12 marker nearly achieving the death of its creator, creating a powerful energy pulse, not unlike an EMP, but of far most bizarre nature.

Problem is, that these energies, somehow bypassed the shielding of the Ishimura's Shockpoint Drive, scrambling the coordinates it was supposed to de-shock on.

Coupled with the exotic particles generated by the markers still on Titan station, which amplified the energy pulse to large enough levels…

Well.

Let's just say that this became one of those coincidental situations that give the middle finger to human science.

* * *

Reycall woke up from a headache not unlike those that came with a hangover that made it into legends.

But he knew that no, he hadn't been drinking in quite a while. And that he had someone else to take care.

"Karrie… hey, Karrie, come on…" he shook her, ignoring the large gash on his forehead, a swollen eye and the fact he was bleeding from the mouth.

"Wha…? Wha' 'ap'nn'" she slurred, a swelling on her cheek, and a cut on her lower lip. Reycall kept shaking her until he remembered he still had someone else in the ship. "_Lexine… Lexine! Are you there! Lexine!"_

A bit of shuffling was _"I'm… okay… a bit… ugh, sore, but nothing else. Did we make it?"_

"_Thank god… and yes… we made it…"_

"_Wait… Reycall, is that you!?"_

"_Yeah… I couldn't talk to you sooner… hey, sorry about Gabe…"_

"… _I still can't believe he's gone too…"_

"_Don't worry, we're still here, alive, that counts for something… "_

"_I hope it does…"_

"_Wait for me at you gunship, okay? We'll try to get to you as soon as possible."_

"_Thanks, I'll be waiting."_

Reycall stepped away from the console, he checked his inventory and pulled out two small medpacks, he applied one to himself and the other to Karrie. He let her sleep a little while going to check on his weapons.

He found two interesting things. One, under a tarp just to the right of the nest's door were two awesome things.

A Heavy Pulse Rifle and a Core Extractor along with a box with three power nodes.

Jackpot.

He took the nodes; the two weapons would stay behind so they could barricade the entrance. Karrie chose that moment to wake up fully, albeit slowly.

She listened to him and took out her own plasma cutter, heavily modified, and both waited for the door to open. Giving the all clear, they took the lift and waited for it to get them to the bridge.

The game was on.

* * *

They looked around the flight deck, it still looked like shit, but there were almost no Necromorphs around and that made them relax a little. They reached the docking bay where the gunship was well… docked and Reycall slammed his fist three times into the door. He was answered by the door opening and a really winded up Lexine. With some scratches here and there, but nothing worth a stay in the medical deck (not that any of them knew how to use the instruments in there… if there were any left.

However, on the trip back to the bridge (after having both Lexine and Karrie change into an Elite Engineering and a Security RIG respectively) the trio found something… interesting.

One Necromorph, that he'd dubbed 'Slasher' was there, trying to move, but it was hard considering it was laid on its left side… which was virtually a puddle of vomit-like goo. The right arm and left leg moved hysterically trying to reach the trio, to which they didn't even bat an eye before using their tools/guns to destroy the damn thing.

Leaving the thing's remains behind, the trio got back to the bridge, the peaceful rainbow vortex in front of the ship was a welcome sight.

* * *

The three of them had reached the captains nest and simultaneously fell asleep next to each other, Reycall was the first to awaken to a sight he found he rather liked.

Karrie was asleep in his right arm, her arms hugging him to her body, despite the armored parts of her RIG making hugging rather difficult, Lexine was curled on herself with a hand clutching at his utility belt, like little kitten, a kitten strong enough to survive twice against undead hordes. He found it difficult to move and disturb them, but it was then when he thought of something. _'Strange… shouldn't we already have reached earth? Titan station isn't THAT far away from earth… even less using shock-space... so why…?'_ he reached for the console and checked the travel time. _'twenty three hours? Then…'_ he couldn't finish his thoughts because the announcement over the speakers.

**::All Hands, Deshocking in three… two… one::**

And after the multi-colored show finished, Edward Reycall looked at the vast, white planet in front of him, which definitely wasn't Earth, and thought: _'We're not in Kansas anymore, are we?'_

* * *

Having woken up both women, the trio began trying to discuss where to go. It was evident, that Lexine would be persecuted and executed on-sight, and now that they thought of it, all of them would. Reycall was an EarthGov soldier gone AWOL, Karrie was a Unitologist that while not knowingly, had let the outbreak begin and also turned on them, Lexine was persecuted by both the church and EarthGov, for being a survivor of this and the last outbreak that had happened in the same ship they were on, her child was another reason not to get closer to the major colonies.

So, now they stayed here, in orbit of an ice planet with a destroyed moon, thinking where to go, as they weren't able to find any references using the Ishimura's starcharts.

They chose to try and use a shuttle and see if they could get anything from there, food, water… but didn't hold much hopes, as none of them were qualified for this kind of work, Reycall had some survival training from EDF boot camp, but it was rather limited since he was not a ranger or something among those lines. Karrie was an Engineer and Lexine was a surveyor, both would be able to help him locate resources and materials, but refining them or turning them in useful thing was not three people could do alone, not when they were in a ship designed to carry at very least two thousand.

And dwelling in those thoughts they were when the ship shuddered, a shudder that could only mean one thing.

"Karrie, what is distance to the planet?"

"4000 clicks and closing… god, we're accelerating! The gravity must be higher than we thought!"

"Oh god, Lexine, do you think that we can escape the gravity field?"

"The only way for a planet that mass to have such a gravity field so high… would be that the core were spinning faster than it should…. Except then it wouldn't had such high quantities of ice covering the surface…"

"Lexine… can we get out of it?"

"Probably, if we disable the shockpoint drive and reroute the power to the main engines…"

Another shudder came, sending them to the floor, Karrie was the first up and noticed something…

"Graviton anomaly detected…. It's just like… it's a gravity tether! It's locked on the Ishimura!"

"How the hell…? Where is it coming from?"

"It's coming from the planet... oh god, it's increasing"

"Lexine! Get on the controls now! See if we can crash-land somewhere safe!"

"It's no use! Whatever is pulling us has locked us out! We can't access the ship's controls!"

"Dammit… come on! Let try to reach a shuttle and get out of here!"

"It's no use! We're accelerating!"

"1000… 800… 500…"

"We're coming too fast! At this rate nothing will remain of the ship!"

"Bloody hell…"

"We're entering the atmosphere!"

"Hold on to something!"

* * *

**::Ship detected in security area. Scanning…**

…

**Complete. No match in database, proceeding to contact AI…**

…

…

**Unsuccessful, AI _(Disabled, Deactivated, not responsive)_. Proceeding with elimination…**

…

**Abort, Override accepted.**

**Proceeding with docking sequence…**

…

**Life forms detected on ship… Scanning…**

**99% Match found. **

…

**Facility AI online…**

**Override accepted…**

"_**About time you showed up, it looks like you didn't make it after all, did you, hmm? Ah, such is the arrogance of the Alterans… never respecting their elders…"**_

* * *

_She laid on her back, the night was as pretty as always._

"_Hey there."_

_HE came. The exaltation she felt was palpable._

"_Hey…" she couldn't say any more._

"_Is it alright for me to sit here?"_

"_Sure"_

"_Thanks"_

…

_The silence was strangling her… why couldn't she talk to him? Why couldn't she be sincere with him?_

"… _I'm moving to Oxford tomorrow morning…"_

_That… was unexpected… and…_

"_Why…?"_

"_Dad's got a job there, seems like he was finally accepted…"_

"_But why do you have to leave!?"_

"_I know it's too soon… but I can't stay behind… my mom is sick…"_

"_What? What happened to Miss Leah?"_

"_she's got some version of ALS… dad's accepted the job so he can pay for the medicaments… even if some are untested…"_

_Why? Why must she lose a mother and now hear that the only person close to matching her is sentenced to die?_

_And why does her only friend have to go away too?_

"_I wish to become a scientist… you know? Perhaps not today, perhaps not tomorrow… but I want to believe I can make a difference…"_

_Why are you telling me this? She shouted in her mind._

_Why can't I remember your name? she struggled with the invisible hand holding those memories…_

_Why does it hurts so much to think about you? She questioned, feeling so guilty of not being able to remember…_

"_But… I first have something I'd like to do…"_

_He came closer, whispered something barely audible , and soon she felt something crash against her lips, something soft, smelling of rain and tasting like only he could…_

_They stayed like that for a while… before she finally fell asleep, in his arms…_

She woke up in a hurry, tears coming out in her face, pain unlike any other in her chest, her head felt like splitting…

But the pain of remembering… was enough to make her forget about all of the others…

His words… his last words…

They finally echoed in her head.

"_I love you, Sam, I'll swear… that 'I'll come back… and soon we'll be happy together, forever and ever… so… wait for me… please…"_

"You didn't come back… I never got to tell you… I loved you too, Rey…"


End file.
